r relaxation
and amusement. He professed to be rejoiced by his release from office,
and those of his friends who wished to please him offered him their
formal congratulations on his promotion to a retirement that placed him
above the petty struggles and cares of political life. He visited
Drury Lane Theatre on March 26, 1715, went about among his friends,
chatted, flirted, paid compliments, received compliments, arranged to
attend another performance at the same theatre the following evening.
That same night he disguised himself as a serving-man, slipped quietly
down to Dover, escaped from thence to Calais, and went hurriedly on to
Paris, ready to place himself and his talents and his influence--such
as it might be--at the service of the Stuarts.

There seems good reason to believe that the Duke of {104} Marlborough,
by a master-stroke of treachery, avenged himself on Bolingbroke at this
crisis in Bolingbroke's fortunes, and decided the flight to Paris.
Bolingbroke sought out Marlborough, and appealing to the memories of
their old friendship, begged for advice and assistance. Marlborough
professed the utmost concern for Bolingbroke, and gave him to
understand that it was agreed upon between the Ministers of the Crown
and the Dutch Government that Bolingbroke was to be brought to the
scaffold. Marlborough pretended to have certain knowledge of this, and
he told Bolingbroke that his only chance was in flight. Bolingbroke
fled, and thereby seemed to admit in advance all the accusations of his
enemies and to abandon his friends to their mercy. One of
Bolingbroke's biographers appears to consider that on the whole this
was well done by Marlborough, and that it was only a fair retaliation
on Bolingbroke. In any case, it is clear that Bolingbroke acted in
strict consistency with the principles on which he had moulded his
public and private life; he consulted for himself first of all. It may
have been necessary for his own safety that he should fly from the
threatening storm, It is certain that he had bitter and unrelenting
enemies. These would not have spared him if they could have made out a
case against him. No one but Bolingbroke himself could know to the
full how much of a case there was against him. But his flight, if it
saved himself, might have been fatal to those who were in league with
him for the return of the Stuarts. If he had stood firm, it is
probable that his enemies would not have been able to preva